Han Lian, chief executive officer of mobile game software maker BBMF Corp., said entering the Japanese market made him feel like an alien landing on a new world. BBMF, which stands for Big Blue Magic Fire, was founded in 2002 by Lian and a friend, Antony Yip. The Japan unit will be set up in the coming months and 10 titles are scheduled to be offered on KDDI and Vodafone handsets.
Thrilled to join with nice folks at HP Bazaar to co-host a rocking good MoMo Tokyo debut event on 13 September and it seemed as though most of the unwired digerati within commuting distance of the Pink Cow, in ubertrendy Shibuya, were there. In today’s Portable Reportable, Chief Editor Daniel Scuka quizzes WWJ’s Lawrence Cosh-Ishii on what he saw and heard at the Mobile Monday launch in Tokyo.
Sharp has developed a new, 2-megapixel CCD camera module featuring a 2X optical inner zoom lens. Intended for use in high-end cameraphones, the new LZ0P3738 [.jpg image] will be available in quantity beginning in October 2004. Sharp is already marketing the LZ0P3731 2-megapixel CCD Camera Module with auto-focus, but to provide even greater functionality, Sharp has successfully equipped this new module with an optical zoom lens that is switchable between normal and 2X zoom.
KTF Co., South Korea’s second-largest mobile phone operator, said Thursday its board decided to form a joint venture with Dentsu Inc., Japan’s biggest advertising company, to produce and sell advertisements on cell phones. KTF will invest 2.5 billion won (US$2.2 million) in the Seoul-based joint venture and hold a 51-percent stake, the venture will begin operations in November this year, KTF said.
Inmarsat is putting heavy emphasis on the Chinese market with its next-generation service, targeting both corporate users and rural communities not covered by cellular networks with data-capable communications. Three Inmarsat 4 satellites are scheduled to begin operation at the end of next year, at a cost of $1.5bn, offering 3G data rates at around $10 per megabyte through a $700, A4-size gateway box.
CEVA Inc., the leading licensor of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) cores and communications solutions to the semiconductor industry, today announced that Japan Radio Co., Ltd., a leading manufacturer of electronic professional communication equipment, has licensed the CEVA-Teak DSP core to power their baseband radio communication solutions. Japan Radio Co., Ltd. (JRC) is embedding CEVA-Teak DSP Core in a baseband chip for its communications equipment to deliver complete signal processing.
